1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to cellular telecommunications systems utilizing high speed packet data transfers.
2. Related Art
In CDMA telecommunications, the state of the art is substantially reflected in documents published by standardization bodies. The published standard that preceded the subject matter presented herein is IS-2000 Release B (“IS-2000 B”), which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference. According to that standard, CDMA cellular telecommunications devices may be enabled for high-speed packet data together with voice communication. An exemplary system and protocol for such services is an early step in the evolution of data-voice capabilities that may be referred to as 1xEV-DV, 1xEV-DV-enabled or simply “EV-DV.” Devices so enabled shall include a number of different physical channels. Although the method and apparatus presented herein were developed in this context, those skilled in the wireless communications art shall recognize that the improvements are applicable to other systems as well. A salient characteristic of such systems is their ability to provide relatively high-speed packet data communications concurrently with voice communications.
As is well known, cellular communications systems generally employ portable transceivers, each of which is called a mobile station (“MS”), for user communications. Such systems are one-to-many in nature, and generally include a relatively modest number of base stations (“BSs”) that each communicate with many MSs. The BSs are disposed as needed throughout geographical areas, to satisfy user demands for range and connection volume. For EV-DV services, or any cellular system providing high-speed pact data communications, the BS infrastructure must also satisfy user requirements for data volume.
Cellular systems are typically constrained in the range of frequencies over which they can operate, which in turn limits the number of MSs that each BS can service. The value of a base station depends upon the number of MSs that can be concurrently served by the base station at a given level of quality of service. Thus, there is a need to increase the number of MSs that a base station is capable of serving, within system constraints based upon bandwidth availability and quality of service requirements. Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus that may be implemented in a cellular telecommunication system to enhance the number of MSs that can be served concurrently by a base station of the system.